Zacheus' house as the House of the Lord: Fringe dwelling

I love the story of Zacheus, the short guy up a tree (Luke 19). Firstly it gives short people a part to play in the Jesus movies. But also because I think it reveals to us just how bad we are missing Jesus' idea of what it was to be him. We are all trying to be him but missing the point so badly... just as we miss the point of this passage so badly. I always hear this passage talked about with regard to how keen Zacheus was to be in the presence of Jesus, or how he didn't want to miss Jesus passing by etc etc. But think about, Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem to be executed... no small point. There is a crowd of people around him and he takes the very centre of his ministry to a person on the edge of society... one of those we label as "on the fringes". Often we think about encouraging these people into our churches with a variety of programs etc, or better, I think, we think about going to them, however this is all too often with the intent of bringing them into our ministry program (probably the one set up to attract people in). I think Jesus goes further. He takes the very centre of his ministry into Zacheus' world. In fact, Zacheus' house, for all intensive purposes becomes the house of the Lord for a time.

Then at the end of this passage we get the phrase "the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost".

I think we miss the seek side of the equation. We have, for the most part just put programs out there for the lost to seek us (which may happen from time to time). What does it look like for us to make the lost the very centre of our ministry? To dwell there (metaphorically or actually).

Ah the fringes of society... it is such an interesting discussion that rages on about how the church meets with the finges of society... it is so hard when for so long we have considered ourselves the centre of society (perhaps rightly so for a time, but I am not convinced that it was a good thing for us). Now we are so fooled by our history that many Christians still consider Christianity as the centre of society but I think if we do then we may be fooling ourselves. It is this fooling of ourselves that makes it so hard for us to reach the fringes! But don't worry, don't stress, it will only take a few more years until we are so marginalised by our own inability to truly connect with the real influencers of society that we will suddenly realize we are the fringes. Perhaps when we get out there then we may be able to connect with those around us... our fellow fringe dwellers, Zacheus and the sinful woman and blind Bartemaus and the heamoraging woman and the Samaritan woman and the demon possesed man and all their friends! (Including the homeless guy on "Bruce Almighty", see my earlier post).

We are so worried about the marginalisation of Christianity... perhaps it is not such a bad thing after all?